Reynatis review: Yoko Shimomura can't save this game from lacking magic

Reynatis has great ideas but terrible execution on every single one of them

FuRyu/NIS America

On paper, Reynatis sounds like the perfect game for me. Written by one of the storywriters for the Kingdom Hearts series, directed by Trinity Trigger’s Takumi Isobe, and with a soundtrack by legendary composer Yoko Shimomura, it ticked absolutely every box for me. Unfortunately, the end result isn’t quite what I was hoping for.

Reynatis tells the story of multiple characters in a futuristic Tokyo where magic users are both common and outcasts. There are a few ways in which somebody can become a wizard, as they’re called — some people are naturally born with magic in their veins, while others awaken powers upon having a near-death experience. Some, too, are turned magical through the use of drugs, but this has devastating side effects that almost always result in the person being turned into a horrific monster.

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Because of this, wizards are shunned by society and seen as deeply dangerous, subject to harsh policing and harsher sentencing. It’s a bit of a clumsy analogy to minorities that the game doesn’t stick the landing on, but in a vacuum it’s not a bad premise for a game world.

Reynatis has you switching between two characters throughout the story, a regular teenage boy with wizard powers called Marin and Sari, a high-ranking officer in the anti-magic police force. The two end up embroiled in a war between the human world and the magical world, and with a ragtag group of outcast wizards, you have to set it all right, somehow, before too much blood is spilled.

The story doesn’t really go anywhere, unfortunately. It lingers too long through moments that should have been a 30-second cutscene, and rushes through storylines that could have spanned an entire line. It’s also punctuated by far too many dramatic speeches. You know how, in some games and films, right before a villain dies or something big happens, they launch into a three-minute-long speech that feels ripped out of the pages of Shakespeare? Reynatis does that four times in the first six hours, and doesn’t let up after that. It’s exhausting, honestly, and it made me not care about the story or the characters delivering these speeches.

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Things don’t get much better in the gameplay department, but I appreciate at least that Reynatis tries to do something differently, even if the execution is a bit rubbish. In both combat and while exploring the world, characters can exist in two states: Suppressed Mode and Liberated Mode. In combat, Suppressed Mode has you dodging every attack and building up magic at the expense of not being able to attack, while Liberated Mode lets you expend magic through attacks to deal damage.

The problem is that there’s no reason to go all-in on Liberated Mode. When in Suppressed Mode, if an enemy attacks you’ll be given ample opportunity to set up a parry, with the game literally pausing for a second or two so you can hold the parry button. If you time it correctly, which is very easy to do, your magic will be instantly replenished and you can do a “burst” attack, which makes you invincible, slows down time so you can deal more damage, and deals extra damage when you hit. When the burst ends, you can just switch back to Suppressed Mode and do it all again.

This means you spend the vast majority of every battle just standing in one place while you wait for enemies to attack you in Suppressed Mode so you can build up parries. It’s effectively impossible to actually take damage while Suppressed, and attempting to attack while Liberated leaves you open to take huge stacks of damage from enemies that hit a little too hard. I really loved the concept of switching between a non-attacking mode and an attacking mode throughout a battle, but while the concept is sound, it’s just not good enough here.

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In the overworld, there’s no reason to be in Liberated Mode either. Sure, you run a little bit faster, but if citizens see you while Liberated they’ll get suspicious, and if a quick-filling suspicion gauge fills up then you’ll be forced into an encounter with magic cops that will utterly destroy you in seconds. What’s worse is that if you get jumped by enemies while wandering, citizens will get suspicious too, so bringing it upon yourself in addition to that is just a dumb idea. I don’t know why this mechanic exists in the overworld and it should have been scrapped — it exists only to be frustrating.

It’s a shame, really, that the story and combat are so lacking, because the presentation is wonderful. It’s not much of a looker technically, but it’s got a strong art style, wonderful character designs, and some fantastic music. I’d expect nothing less from Yoko Shimomura on the latter point, and while it’s not quite as impactful and memorable as her work in Final Fantasy 15 or Kingdom Hearts, the soundtrack is still filled with bangers. 

Reynatis tries to tick many boxes, and in the process ends up ticking very few. Despite some strong presentation and some genuinely fantastic ideas, the execution is lacking in just about every department, with a story that goes nowhere and gameplay that’s more frustrating than fun.

Score: 5/10 

Version tested: PS5